Monday, May 6, 2013

What do you do with some really crappy leftover vodka? Infuse it. At midnight on a Sunday.

Recently, we made a homemade Bloody Mary mix and of course, needed the perfect vodka to go with it (we are still perfecting the mix so that post will come later). It was late on Sunday and my lovely boyfriend thought it would be a good idea to run to the store for bacon and jalapeños. Oh yeah, and a surplus of mason jars. Apparently, the three we already had wasn't good enough. Despite the late hour, we had a pretty good time and learned that infusing vodka is very simple.

Infusing lemon vodka OR jalapeño vodka:
1. Fill mason jar 3/4 full of vodka
2. Cut up one lemon OR two jalapeños into quarters and put into mason jar with vodka
3. Let the two infuse for 5-7 days for maximum flavor
4. Mix your favorite drink - preferably a Bloody Mary, duh.

Infusing black tea vodka:
1. Fill mason jar 3/4 full of vodka
2. Place tea bag in mason jar and screw on the lid
3. Let the tea bag steep in the vodka for 3-4 hours (I did it for 6 hours and it was pretty strong)
4. Mix your favorite drink - we love hard Arnold Palmer drinks or something like this

These are the things we learned:
1. Infusing bacon vodka is not as easy as it looks. We had a blog DIY fail on our first attempt. Lots of recipes say to use the bacon fat but I don't recommend it. We had better luck with this recipe.
2. Crappy vodka is still, crappy vodka. Next time we are going to venture up a couple shelfs at the liquor store and go for something a little smoother.
3. It is hard to fall asleep when your house smells like bacon.